


Lightning Strikes

by lesyeuxverts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Awkward First Time, Double Penetration, Infidelity, M/M, Multi, Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 08:55:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesyeuxverts/pseuds/lesyeuxverts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius comes between James and Remus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning Strikes

James had always been the brave one, and he smiled at Remus as he made ready to Apparate into battle. The Order bustled around them, vibrating with anticipation and fear, but James was quiet and steady. He gave Remus a last, stolen look that was better than any kiss, and their fingers brushed together as they reached for their wands.  
  
Lily and Alice were left behind, huddling in the Order's safe house under a mountain of quilts that Molly had made. They were old quilts, with edges that were worn and frayed with years of use, and the bright crimson and gold clashed with Lily's hair. Alice was washed out by the bright colours, her face pale as she gave Frank a last kiss. James knelt next to Lily, his hand over the quilt covering her belly.  
  
Remus did not stop to say goodbye to either of the witches. He took James by the hand, pulling him to the Apparition point, and the world split open around them. The field was divided, the Death Eaters across from them with the Dark Mark hanging over them, large and ghost-like in the blue sky. The battle began.  
  
Red and green curses struck the earth like lightning, stabbing and tearing great, gaping wounds full of mud and char. The soil smoked, and Remus leapt over the cracks. He held his wand tight, his fingers aching, and returned curse for curse, hex for hex. In the smoke and clamor, in the melee of Death Eaters and Order members, he didn't see James.  
  
When it was over, the smoke Banished and the debris cleared, the wounded sent to the hospital and the members of the Order sent home, he moved towards James without thinking. His fingers still sore from being clenched around his wand, he grabbed James's shoulder. "Let's go home."  
  
James Apparated them to Hogwarts, not to Godric's Hollow. Remus took a deep breath – this was not home. The war wasn't over yet.  
  
His hand was still on James's shoulder. Remus took a step away, his hand falling to his side, and leaned back into the stone wall that surrounded the school. James stepped up to stand in front of him, reaching out to wrap his fingers around one of the iron bars in the gate.   
  
He breathed – he had survived. There was a streak of mud on his face, and his fingers trembled. He was still alive, and Remus reached for him, his own fingers trembling. "Remus –"  
  
"We shouldn't."  
  
James kissed Remus then, pressing him against the wall until his spine tingled. His chin, unshaven and rough, scraped against Remus's jaw, and their noses bumped together. "Please," James said, a breath away from Remus, his lips pressed against Remus's cheek. "Please."  
  
Remus pushed him away, his palm flat on James's chest, over his beating heart. This was not the place – this was the place where James had met Lily, this was the place where Remus had met Sirius.   
  
"Not here," he said, Apparating them to Godric's Hollow and the house that he thought of as home.  
  
****  
  
There was nothing to it, James had thought – a few words, a ring, and the chance to fall asleep next to a warm, familiar body. It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be comfortable, the perfect, fairytale marriage in the middle of hard training and in the middle of a war.  
  
It wasn't supposed to be Remus, with his soft hands and hard edges, his muscles and his scars. It wasn't supposed to be chance meetings in Diagon Alley or secret rendezvous after Order meetings.  
  
James had slipped away from the house in the afternoon. Lily was spelling a parade of yellow ducks onto the nursery walls, and the swell of her belly, the curve of her lips, the tight confines of the sturdy walls that he'd built – James couldn't bear to stay.  
  
He had coffee with Remus in a little shop near the bookstore, and that was the reason – the only reason – why they were together when Albus's signal came. It was the only reason that they went into battle together. Friendship, coffee, chance meetings in Diagon Alley – there couldn't be anything more to it than that.  
  
Lily was in the safe house and Sirius was on a mission, so James kept his eyes on Remus during the battle. They were friends. That was the only reason he never let Remus out of his sight, and that was the only reason that he saw the curse that almost hit him. It was green … like Lily's eyes, like heat lightning in the summer, like death. He pulled Remus away from the others when it was all over.   
  
He had touched Remus – a hand on his back, on his shoulder, on his arm. He had leaned close to Remus before, had felt Remus's breath on his neck, his cheek, his lips. James leaned closer now.   
  
There were dark flecks in Remus's amber eyes, and his hands shook, his fingers still curled around his wand. James reached out to touch him.  
  
He'd never had this before… had never thought of taking it from Sirius, had never thought that Remus would touch him. Something caught in his throat, every time he saw Sirius lean close to Remus for a kiss, every time he saw Sirius's hand on Remus's shoulder, every time he saw Remus smile at Sirius.  
  
****  
  
Sirius slept like the dead, the first night back from a mission, but when he woke to an empty flat – when Remus didn't come back – he knew that the worst had happened. He'd fallen asleep, waiting, and he'd dreamt of it.   
  
He'd seen Remus falling in battle, lying sprawled on the ground next to James, reaching for Sirius and calling for him even as he died.   
  
Remus was not there. His smell filled the room, his body had left deep creases in the sheets. This was his home.  
  
When Remus was gone, when the dreams of death and war had burned down to smouldering embers, then Sirius dreamt of Remus touching him, taking him. He was not gentle, had lost his abstraction and his far-away looks – he was there, moving in Sirius, claiming him. He marked Sirius as his own and the war fell away as though it didn't matter, as though nothing mattered when Remus touched him.   
  
When he woke, Sirius brushed the dreams away. The bed was cold and the flat was empty, and there was nothing that he could do for Remus.  
  
He went to find Lily, wanting hot tea and breakfast – there was always plenty of both at Godric's Hollow. He whistled as he went through the wisteria-twined gate and down the path to the cottage – he had no thought of finding anything more than toast.  
  
Lily wasn't in the kitchen. Sirius stopped on the threshold, his hand loosely gripping the doorknob.   
  
This was it, then. This was the end of the Marauders' fairytale.  
  
James was spread out on the table, his arms flung wide and his thighs parted for Remus. His pale skin was streaked with mud, and his wand dangled from his hand, his fingers sooty with spell residue.   
  
"Almost… almost lost you today," he said, gasping as Remus fisted his cock, kissing the tip of it and fondling his balls. "Almost… oh, Remus."  
  
Remus swallowed him whole, his throat working around James's length. His fingers were clenched around the edge of the table, tendons in sharp outline. The sunlight that streamed through the windows and lit them grew hazy and dark as clouds moved to cover the sun – shadows worked over their bodies, darkening their muscles as they moved.   
  
This was Remus, Sirius's Remus, and those shadows were his to touch. Those muscles were his to stroke, and that mouth was his. The way that Remus swallowed, the way that his tongue moved, the soft sounds that he made, it all belonged to Sirius. There was no place for James between them.   
  
James moaned, and Remus unzipped his trousers, pulling down his pants. He stroked himself as he sucked James, and this belonged to Sirius too. Remus's lips glistened, and his eyes were closed, his throat working as he swallowed – he was beautiful.  
  
Sirius was hard, achingly hard. Cupping himself through his trousers, he watched them.  
  
Remus came up for a deep breath, his cheeks flushed and his lips gleaming. "I never knew," he said. "I never would have touched you… if I couldn't have you, I had Sirius, and if I had Sirius, that was enough… but you–"  
  
"Enough," James said.   
  
He pulled Remus up to him, his fingers scrabbling over slick, muddy skin for purchase. The eerie storm-light haloed them as he grabbed Remus's hips, pressing their bodies together. They rested together, chest pressed to chest and groin pressed to groin, panting as if the air in the room was gone.   
  
Their lips were crushed together in a rough kiss, noses bumping together and fingers fumbling as they fought for dominance. James came out on top, and then Remus pushed him onto his back, pinning him to the table and growling.  
  
Sirius caught his breath. This was what he had wanted to see – all softness stripped away, all manners laid aside, roughness and passion remaining, this was the Remus that he had wanted to love.   
  
The storm broke over the cottage, rain pouring down on the roof. Lightning flashed, the sparks flying through the air like curses cast in battle. Sirius shivered, his hair standing on end, and took a step closer to Remus and James.  
  
He wanted to be there, pressed between their sweaty bodies, caught up in their warmth. He wanted to take both of them at once – both of them filling him, their cocks rubbing together as they thrust into him, moving as one. Remus raked his nails down James's chest, nipping his throat and leaving red marks on his skin, and Sirius wanted to be between them.   
  
****  
  
James had always been the brave one, and Sirius had always been the brash one. Remus was the quiet one. He was the only one left.  
  
He had trusted them both, loved them both, taken them both, and it had all come to ruin. James was dead, and Sirius had betrayed him.  
  
The storm had pounded down around the cottage, the lightning splitting the sky, and the table had rocked underneath them. Sirius had come between Remus and James. He had split them apart just as they had come together for the first time.   
  
It had been theirs, the time after the battle, the rush of blood through their veins, the hot puffs of shared breath. The time had been theirs until Sirius intruded, and then it was gone. He had been between them, marked by them. He had been panting and desperate, slick with sweat and come, begging for more. Remus's name was on his lips when he came, and it was over. The two of them were part of a whole again, part of a world where James had Lily and Remus had Sirius.   
  
Remus moved through the flat, clearing away the last of Sirius's things and packing them up into a flimsy box. Dust motes hung suspended in the sunlight, and Remus Banished them – his wand made huge rents in the air, his spells sizzled and left the smell of ozone. The cardboard box sagged as he threw books and papers in it, clothes and keepsakes, all of it in haphazard piles. These things had nothing to do with him anymore.  
  
James had sworn that it would bring them closer, that nothing would separate them again. The three of them had gone back to the safe house, finding Lily and Alice waiting in their haven of quilts, pale and worried. James had put his hand over Lily's belly and helped her to stand, guiding her back to Godric's Hollow. He'd gone back to Lily. Remus and Sirius had gone back to their flat, which felt too small for just the two of them.  
  
Like air, Remus had needed James. Sirius couldn't understand that – Sirius had needed him.   
  
Sirius had been marked by both of them, sore and scratched and still hungry for Remus's touch. Touching Sirius, kissing his lips when they were swollen from James's kisses, it had felt like a betrayal for the first time.   
  
Remus had always had Sirius – he'd had James once. He had survived the battle with James and rested in his arms.   
  
Brave, smiling James was dead, and Sirius was gone. Remus shrank the boxes and sent them to the attic with a flick of his wand. He'd had James and Sirius both, but in the end, it was not enough.


End file.
